The. WHOLE. Story.

Months and months ago, I promised Kristen P. B. that I would explain why Adam and I moved to Korea in February of 2010.

Now, 7 months later, I find myself making the same promise to others to explain why we LEFT South Korea.

It's a long story. Naturally. :)

WHY WE MOVED TO KOREA:

1. To save money! We decided to be very fiscally responsible newly-weds and set up a nest egg for our retirement. The goal : $20,000 to be invested and left untouched for the duration of our working lives. Two years in Korea, teaching English and living like kings, and we would have easily reached this goal. Cost of living is extremely low, and paychecks are about the same as American teachers, which makes for lots of savings.

2. To live near one of my dear friends and meet her son (my "nephew"). I was thrilled to visit her twice in our 4 months there, though this was definitely not enough for me.

3. To travel!

4. To have adventures.


WHY WE LEFT KOREA IN A BIG HURRY :

1. The couple who hired us (long story there, which I will graciously omit) quit/were fired the week before we arrived. We didn't learn of this until we arrived and found that nothing was quite as we were expecting.

2. Our visas were fraudulent. This is obviously the biggie, though there were many people in Korea who assured us that it really wasn't something to worry about, as there is not, at this point in time, sufficient legislation in place for private Korean schools to obtain English teachers legally. Apparently, the government turns a blind eye in return for the education of it's populace.  Regardless of how safe we actually were, it was terribly stressful for us throughout our stay. I mean, OUR VISAS WERE FRAUDULENT. Adam's visa was the correct type, but it specified that he was working in a city 3.5 hours away. My visa didn't even permit me to have a job! It was a "spouse" visa that allowed me to be in Korea as long as Adam was. Ooof.

3. The school was never able to pay us on time. Granted, they weren't usually more than a week late, but considering that we only had 7 students and FOUR of them were children of board members, we were pretty sure the school was struggling financially. The biggest indicator of this was that our receptionist, the only other worker at the school - after the replacement principal quit - informed us that she hadn't been paid in 4 months.

Aaand there was a lot of other messy stuff about embezzlement and blackmail - none of which had to do with us - that our school was dealing with. (Dang it, "with which our school was dealing with" just sounds ridiculous, so you Grammar Nazis will just have to bite your lips and struggle past it. I'm not changing that sentence.)

In retrospect of course, it sounds like a crazy, hilarious adventure - and it was! At the time, we were frequently stressed, exhausted and kinda lonely (together), so it was a little more difficult to appreciate the humor in the situation.

We did, however, live like total kings for the brief period we were there. We spared no expense in getting whatever we needed, liked or craved. It was un-thrifty, indulgent and possibly necessary for our sanity. :) I went to the sauna when I was cold, Adam spent hours in coffee shops writing, we got internet for our apartment even though we didn't absolutely need it, and we spent many a happy evening stuffing our faces with a comforting meal at Pizza Hut.

I think the biggest indulgence of our stay was the bed-softener pad we got for our bed. We knew at the point that we might or might not be staying in Korea after the semester ended. It cost a lot. We wouldn't be bringing it back to the States with us.         We got it anyway.

This was our bed before:

A brick.

  Or maybe this:

A big-a** rock.

Needless to say, we spent three months tossing and turning and waking up tired.

THIS was our bed AFTER the pad:

A really soft and downy chick.

The fluffiest bunny you have ever seen.

The most comfortable-looking clouds google images could provide.

It was very possibly due to the psychology of the situation, but after that, we slept like (very tired, un-colic-y) babies.

We left the sleeping pad in care of my friend, who I hope sleeps just as peacefully as we did with the Magic Sleeping Pad. Heaven knows she needs the rest more than Adam and I did, with a toddler and another little boy on the way! I kinda miss it now, though.

Anyways. I feel like I got a little side-tracked...

One year resolutions

We celebrated the first birthday of our marriage in style.  

Happy Anniversary to us! We got off work for the night of the 31st and the morning of the 1st, and we relished every nostalgic second of our time off. The arrival of our lovely wedding photo-album only days before made the nostalgia very easy to capture.

Adam surprised me with an evening dinner cruise aboard the Steamboat Natchez, an historical steamer that has live jazz bands and a buffet dinner to accompany the captain's  tales of the Mississippi over the loud speaker.

The woman on top of the boat is playing a calliope

Adam claimed he had commissioned that grafitti just for me

I had a harder time believing him when he said he also requested to the captain that we pass by the sugar factory so he could tell me I'm "sweeter than the whole factory." Just kidding, he didn't say that.

US govt saving on docking fees by parking side-by-side

Sunset on the Mississip'

Still feelin' the newlywed bliss

It was lovely. After disembarking, we snagged some beignets at Cafe du Monde before heading to our  S W A N K Y hotel, the W.

Nom nom nom

Coolest hotel ever

We went through two bottles of wine without drinking one single glass - the first one smashed to bits on the deck of the Natchez (whoops) and the second was undrinkable. bleagh. Of course, Adam and I have no need of alcohol to party, and we had a fabulous time despite the absence of fermented grapes.

The next morning we copied the Arnold newlyweds by ordering room service for the first - and probably last - time in our lives. We ate breakfast in (our hilariously huge) bed and watched TV for hours, two other things we will probably never do again for the remainder of our year in New Orleans. But hey, one-year anniversaries only come once in a lifetime! ("Just like 2-year anniversaries, 3-years, 4-years..." Adam said with an impish grin)

In closing, it was a magical night and utterly decadent morning.  Can't wait for next year!

I love you, Adam. The song "More Today then Yesterday" by Spiral Staircase definitely applies in our case.


POST. SCRIPT.

I just would like to note that ever since August 1st 2009 and it's glory, it has become clearer and clearer every day just how beautiful and precious life is. Fast forward to August 1st, 2010 --> Now that work has calmed down to the point where I actually leave the hostel every day, I've resolved to be a better communicator. With myself, with my husband and with everyone I know. And I've been doing very well so far, though today was very possibly overkill. (In the past 4 hours, I've replied to 5 emails and 10 facebook messages before screwing up my remaining energy and writing this post. )

Life is beautiful and precious and all that, but it's the relationships I cultivate and cherish that make it so. And that's my goal for this year: cultivating the relationships I have and love. I'm in a job where relationships are created and dropped in 3 days time, over and over again. Maybe some of them will stretch into something permanent and surprising, but I don't want the short-term to become my habit.

That's enough - my brain is communicated out for now. Cheers!